It's Baton Rouge: Out To Lunch

Although we’re living in an age of hyperbole where headlines and politicians are apt to cast everything in terms of absolute disaster or unprecedented achievement, it might be surprising but no exaggeration to claim that there are institutions and scientists in Baton Rouge that are world leaders in healthcare. Dr. John Kirwan is Executive Director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “Pennington” as it is mostly referred to locally, is a 30-year-old facility in Baton Rouge that is arguably the most prestigious research institute in the world focused on chronic diseases diabetes and obesity. Recently Pennington has become home to a bariatric treatment center that is expected to attract the most severely obese patients from around the world. Dr. Kirwan came to Pennington in 2017 from the famed Cleveland Clinic, where he was working on a cure for type II diabetes. When he came here he brought a couple of dozen researchers with him, along with their millions in federal researc